Recently, liquid crystal display devices with wide viewing angle characteristics have been developed one after another and used extensively as monitors for personal computers, personal digital assistants, and TV receivers.
One of those liquid crystal display devices with wide viewing angle characteristics uses a vertical alignment type liquid crystal layer, and is said to operate in “VA mode”. The applicant of the present application discloses, in Patent Document No. 1, a VA mode liquid crystal display device that would improve the viewing angle characteristic by producing domains with radially tilting alignment in response to a voltage applied. In that liquid crystal display device, when a voltage is applied, domains with multiple radially tilting alignments are produced within each pixel and the alignments of liquid crystal molecules in adjacent domains with such radially tilting alignments are continuous with each other. The applicant of the present application calls the liquid crystal display mode that uses the unique alignment state disclosed in Patent Document No. 1 “continuous pinwheel alignment (CPA) mode” (see Non-Patent Document No. 1). The entire disclosures of Patent Document No. 1 and Non-Patent Document No. 1 are hereby incorporated by reference.
Patent Document No. 1 discloses a configuration of which the pixel electrode has a non-solid portion (i.e., an opening where there is no conductive layer) and in which the radially tilting alignment is produced by using an oblique electric field to be generated at an edge of the non-solid portion of the pixel electrode when a voltage is applied. The patent document also discloses a configuration in which an alignment control structure is provided on one side of the counter substrate, which faces the pixel electrode through a liquid crystal layer, to face the liquid crystal layer to further stabilize the radially tilting alignment (see FIG. 27 of Patent Document No. 1, for example). A raised portion that protrudes into the liquid crystal layer (see FIG. 24(b) of Patent Document No. 1, for example) is disclosed as such an alignment control structure.                Patent Document No. 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-202511        Non-Patent Document No. 1: Kubo et al., Sharp Giho (technical bulletin) Vol. 80, pp. 11-14 (August, 2001)        